Breast-feeding could help reduce childhood stuttering, study finds

August 28, 2013|By Janice Neumann, Special to the Tribune

According to a University of Illinois study, boys who were breast-fed for more than a year had roughly one-sixth the chance of developing persistent stuttering as those who did not breast-feed. The results were not statistically significant in girls who stuttered. (Getty Images, Getty Photo)

Breast-feeding, already known for supplying babies with healthy nutrients and disease-fighting antibodies, may also help guard against persistent stuttering, a University of Illinois study has found.

Boys who were breast-fed for more than a year had roughly one-sixth the chance of developing persistent stuttering as those who did not breast-feed, according to the study. The results were not statistically significant in girls who stuttered.

The study was published in the June online issue of the Journal of Communication Disorders and performed by Jamie Mahurin-Smith, while she was a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Nicoline Ambrose, associate professor emeritus in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science, also at the U. of I. at Urbana-Champaign.

Mahurin-Smith is now assistant professor in the department of communication sciences and disorders at Illinois State University.

The researchers studied data from the U. of I. Stuttering Research Project on 47 infants, 17 of them with persistent stuttering and 30 who recovered naturally. The data included child stutterers who entered the program between ages 2 and 6, were assessed every six months for two years, annually for two more years, and then for a final follow-up five to eight years later.

Preschool boys are twice as likely to stutter as are girls, but boys become three or four times more likely to stutter as they grow older, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Stuttering usually affects children ages 2 to 5. About 5 percent of children will stutter at some time in their lives, but most outgrow the speech deficit.

"Girls and boys start stuttering with much more similar frequencies, but boys are a lot more likely to keep going than girls are, so it seemed likely we would see a stronger affect among boys, which is how it shook out," Mahurin-Smith said.

Previous research has shown stuttering could have both genetic and environmental causes. Several past studies have also found a link between breast-feeding and improved language development. A recent study by Brown University researchers found on magnetic resonance imaging scans that by age 2, babies who were breast-fed for at least three months showed increased brain development compared with those fed formula or breast milk plus formula.

The current study speculated that long-chain fatty acids — specifically, docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid — found in human milk may help protect against persistent stuttering.

"Everybody knows that kids are building new brain tissues at a rapid rate during their first couple of years of life," Mahurin-Smith noted. "What most people don't think about is what kind of building blocks you need for making a brain."

Stuttering can affect kids from poor and wealthy backgrounds, Mahurin-Smith said. Stuttering rarely has psychogenic roots, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Mahurin-Smith cautioned that the results of the study were no "magic bullet," as some boys continue to stutter despite being breast-fed.

"For this reason, I really want to encourage any mothers of children with persistent stuttering not to beat themselves up about what they did or didn't do during those early years — you just can't know what might have happened," Mahurin-Smith said.

Dr. Esther Krych, a pediatrician at Mayo Clinic, said she found the results "really interesting" and commended the authors for uncovering another potential benefit to breast-feeding.

"They highlight nicely that breast-feeding isn't a cure-all, but at the same time that there may be benefits to breast-feeding we still have not discovered," said Krych, explaining there are many factors that go into language development. "Because of that, moms who can't breast-feed don't need to feel guilty."

Krych, who is also chief medical editor of Mayo Clinic Guide to Your Baby's First Year, said the mere act of caressing a baby while either breast-feeding or bottle-feeding with formula offered babies intimacy and a sense of security.